Mark Kermode: A Guy Who Gets It, Reviews Breaking Dawn

We have been covering Mark Kermode’s assessment of the Twilight Saga since New Moon. Mark Kermode is well aware the series (like we are ) isn’t in danger of winning an OSCAR, but understands it’s escapist, romantic fun. He is also highly critical of reviewers who seem to think it’s a treatise on abstinence, a Mormon conversion piece, or a defense of abusive male behavior. Check out Mark’s latest and scroll down for links on his previous reviews.

Kudos to Mark Kermode for giving a fair and incisive appraisal of BD 1 and the whole Saga. The typical half-baked sociopolitical commentary about abstinence, Mormonism, etc. is just a glib, reductive excuse to dismiss the series.

Once again, Mark does a great job of reviewing this series. I wish he could interview Rob, Kristen & Taylor — I think he’d be great in discussing the series with them and bring up many questions, we as fans would have.

Seriously, can’t they get this guy to make some appearances at a Twilight convention?

I really appreciated this review. Very fair. He also sheds light on my main frustration with the harsher critics. They blatantly don’t like Twilight (not the books/story, sometimes not the fans), so it seems completely natural that they won’t like the movies. However, they try to make it seem as if they’re not biased by their hatred of the source material. If they were taking their dislike into account, the movie reviews would not bash the plot because the movie plot mirrors the book plot almost exactly. They could comment on the acting, the cinematography, the music, the pacing, so many other things, but instead they talk about how the whole concept is basically stupid. Well…if you thought the books were stupid, of course you’ll think the movies are stupid. Not a fair review in my opinion. I’d prefer a critic who said up front “I don’t like Twilight” and then commented on other things (in the same way Mark talked about the wolf CGI and wolf pack voices not working) instead of what they feel is an utterly ridiculous plot. When a critic is a fan (not necessarily a Twihard, just someone who doesn’t think the plot is horrible), I think you can expect a fairer review. The fan critic might say thing like “the way the handeld X was unsuccessful, and Y’s acting during this crucial scene was off,” etc.

I agree with all your points,but I think the genreral dismisal that Twilight’s only fans are teenage girls,are the reason for most of the hate. The adult fans in the fandom see other metaphors and symbols used in the series,that goes beyond “Edward and/or Jacob is so cute”. LOL! As a film student,I watched BD from a director’s standpoint. I was paying close attention to the subtle details most moviegoers are not interested in. You’re right in saying that the fan critic would pay attention to how certain aspects of a scene were handeled,because we’d read the book and know what to look for. Most of these critics should be ignored,since they really don’t know the novels,therefore they can’t write an unbiased review. Give me more critics like Mark Kerremode and then I’ll listen to what they have to say.